CHINESE NEIGHBORS 中国邻居: Reasons to Celebrate

Celebrations have been following one after another for the past month!

9.8

Back to School Feast

First Day of School Eve, we made crowns for our star students and gave them a proper send-off to school with a stem-glass dinner, fancy food (pizza...) and a gift. Dad introduced our focus for the semester which is, "We love others because God loves us all." At dinner we talked over what that means and how to live by it at home and at school. (And we say it to each other most mornings when I drop them off at the classroom door.) Most importantly, there is encouragement: You kids are loved, special, you can do and learn so may things, and be a blessing to those around you! Mom and Dad are here for you.

9.9

First Day of School

9.10

Teacher's Day and

Tenth Anniversary of Young Adult Fellowship

We invited all our Children's Sunday School partners and some additional friends to a Teacher's Day dinner. They are a hard-working bunch, and we wanted to let them know how much their labor for the children is valued and appreciated. The gathering strengthened our friendships and cooperation.

Following dinner, most of us skipped over to the Youth Adult Fellowship's Tenth Anniversary Party. Drew and I have never been to this Wednesday night gathering before; it's alive! That night many shared testimonies of spiritual growth and gave thanks for the community. The facilitators asked us to perform. We did a scuffly up-beat Chinese praise song and a Chinese version of "We Fall Down" -- way fun! Went over great, and I think, communicated our joy for who Jesus is.

9.13

Chen Man's Wedding

She and I spent quite a bit of time together when she was a university sophomore and we were teachers. She's the first of that generation of girls that I worked with to get married, and she's also the first to be expecting a baby! She and her husband are doing well, and I was glad to have dinner and a good talk with her recently.

9.14

Titus' Sixth Birthday

Our very special son began his birthday morning with pancakes and Waigong & Waipo on skype. It was a quality family day -- Drew and I remarked at how that day, all four of us gathered for all three meals at our dining table -- which doesn't happen very often. Titus is precious to us, and we were glad to express that to him with hugs and affirming words, a minion cake and gifts.

Legos from Ye-Ye, Nai-Nai and Jenny Gu-Gu.

Basketball hoop from Waigong & Waipo.

Rope from Dad, purchased by the docks on a small island of Hong Kong. Drew knows his son; Titus is crazy about tying elaborate knots and rigging things up with jump ropes and resistance bands.

9.22
Baby Christina was born to our friends Noah & Naomi!

She's their third child, all three girls. Pictured below, Naomi, Leslie and I are close friends and have been meeting weekly with John flipped open next to a cup of coffee. It's an honor to grow and share intimate, purposeful friendship with two outstanding women. We help keep each other on track. We laugh a lot! And that week it was so memorable to meet together in the hospital with brand-new baby Christina.

The dads! Drew and Noah.

9.29

Drew & Rachel's Seventh Wedding Anniversary

First of all, inspired by Drew's parents, we started a tradition of celebrating Ma & Pa's wedding anniversary with the kids. It's the anniversary of the founding of this family, of which they are a part, after all! They should be in on the party too, which this year took place over chicken and ice cream at KFC after Tae Kwon Do.

Fancy, yes.

Our idea is to carve out this time to communicate value for a holy marriage and tell them how much Drew and I love each other and work to love each other. It's a time to let them in on the dialogue, including listening to their feedback about how they perceive Mom & Dad's relationship. Sure, they are only six and four years-old right now, but we think it's a great time to start the intentional talks. Of course these conversations are not limited to one night a year -- they happen in the every day -- but this is a night set aside for a purpose.

Mike's classmate was there and distracting him from our highly idealistic family marriage talk. haha!

A few days later Drew and I stole away for our private anniversary dinner. We walked around on a traditional-style Chinese street where there is the coolest stylized Starbucks I've ever seen; it opens up to a multi-level art gallery at the back. Then Drewy emptied his wallet taking me out to really fancy French restaurant. We love getting away to talk about our dreams, reflect, dote on each other a little bit, talk things out, set or reset course.

10.1
China's National Day

It was the sixty-fourth anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. The weather is perfect, the whole country is on holiday for about a week, old friends regather back to Changsha. Drew spent some of the holiday writing his thesis. We got together with a few different groups of friends. One day we climbed the mountain with my old girlfriends, happened to meet Jared at the peak, descended the hill in the dark and all shared a feast of Northeast-style Chinese cuisine.